Unit information: Composing Live Electronics in 2020/21

Unit name	Composing Live Electronics
Unit code	MUSI30141
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Farwell
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	normally: MUSI10059 Composition, and at least one of MUSI20058 Compositional Strategy / MUSI20058 Performance / MUSI20124 Music recording and production.
Co-requisites	none
School/department	Department of Music
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Electronic sound has enriched the possibilities for what composers can imagine and, with today’s affordable technologies, composers can now achieve more than ever before. This unit builds conceptual understanding and practical skills, for students who wish to add electronics to extend their acoustic composition practice, and for students who plan to do more extensive electroacoustic work.

We look at strategies for combining instruments, voices and recorded sound, from conceiving the desired sonic qualities and crafting the sounds, through to issues of synchronisation in performance and what to show in a notated score. We will investigate multiple approaches to real-time sound transformation and its musical control. ‘Flipping’ the agenda, to put live sound into the recorded medium, we go outside the studio to record material in the urban and natural world. Finally we extend our thinking about interactivity and ‘being live’ with experiments in extended- and meta-instruments and sound installation.

The unit will draw on a wide musical repertoire including current research. Students will make use both of ‘off the shelf’ tools, and discover ‘custom’ approaches through an introduction to Max software. Students will support each other, as performers and technical assistants, learning from the practical realisation of each other’s work.

The unit prepares composers for independent composition with electronics and further work in later units or postgraduate study. Beyond composing, the techniques have application from game design to live theatre to computing.

Aims

This unit aims to equip students with skills and understanding across a range of contemporary techniques and concepts for the use of live electronics in art-music. The coverage is intended to be of value both to ‘mainly acoustic’ and ‘mainly studio’ composers, and also to creative performers who want to extend their palette.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the unit, a successful student will be able to:

1. demonstrate solid synoptic knowledge of aesthetic and technical applications for live electronics in art-music
2. use appropriate equipment and software techniques to capture and transform sound material
3. demonstrate practical understanding of a range of real-time, control and interaction strategies
4. use appropriate visual representations, including scores for live performers
5. demonstrate skills in recording and composing with live and environmental sound, and understanding of contextual frameworks such as acoustic ecology
6. create original short musical works, applying these techniques, that balance imagination, coherence, and practicality
7. demonstrate sophisticated integration of skills, in acoustic composition and/or as a performer, with the techniques of live electronics

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including lectures and self-directed exercises.

Assessment Information

Four pieces of coursework, ILOs 1-7. All four must be submitted for credit. The best three marks contribute to the unit mark (33.3% each).

Reading and References

Emmerson, Simon (ed.): The Language of Electroacoustic Music – Macmillan, London, 1986.

Emmerson, Simon: Living Electronic Music – Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007

Huber, David Miles: Modern Recording Techniques – Taylor and Francis, London, 2017

Rumsey, Francis, McCormick, Tim: Sound and Recording: An Introduction, Focal Press, Oxford, 2002

Schafer, R. Murray: The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World, Destiny Books, Rochester Vt., 1994

Winkler, Todd: Composing Interactive Music – MIT Press, London, 1999